Flighty’s plot

Anyone who remembers my original FlightBuff blog will know that I have always been fascinated by whirlybirds.

I usually see various civil and military helicopters most weekdays such as RAF Northolt 32 Sqdn’s sleek A-109E’s, or one of the Metropolitan Police EC145’s.

Northolt’s Charity Photocall last weekend included various helicopters of which this Polish Air Force Sokol W-3 was a nice surprise, being a first visit of type, and a colourful Netherlands AF AB-412SP.

This weekend George Bush is in London with his usual aerial armada. This includes at least two USMarines presidential Sea Kings and a handful of escorting USArmy Black Hawks, all operating from Northolt. They were flying during Friday afternoon whilst I was on the plot where I got good views of them in formation and at low-level.

Yesterday saw the Queen’s Birthday Flypast overhead Buckingham Palace at 1.00pm. The formation continued on to overfly Northolt and RAF Halton before dispersing.  This year an impressive 55 aircraft took part including two of Northolt’s 32 Sqdn BAe-125 CC3.

Several months ago I put a few tiny tadpoles, and a small piece of pond weed, into the plot pond.

Since then I’ve looked out for these taddlers but more often than not only seen one or two of them very occasionally.

On Wednesday when I parted the pond side grass I was surprised, indeed delighted, to see the real Frog Newton!

He’s actually smaller than he looks here being little more than an inch or so long!

Thanks to Glo (Porcelain Rose) we have been reading about his imagined (?) adventures in the pond and on the plot here in Frog Ponderings, which will continue, as usual, next week.

For my past three birthdays Nikkipolani has very kindly done a Happy birthday Flighty entry with some of her lovely roses which she knew were my favourites.

Last year when I took on the plot I decided to have a Nikki’s corner with a rose on it. It’s Valentine Heart which has started flowering in the past few days just in time for me to say…

Happy birthday Nikki!

Springwatch finishes it’s three week run on Thursday, ending what has been a really excellent series, and don’t forget that tomorrow’s programme is on at the earlier time of 6.30pm.

However next week sees four Springwatch Specials.

On Monday is Sealife with Kate Humble, Tuesday sees Bill Oddie present Gardens, Spectacular is on Wednesday with Simon King and Thursday has Gordon Buchanan with People.

They are all being shown on BBC2 at 8.00pm.

Just two months ago it was Snowy Sunday! but early this morning as I walked thorough the site gates it was definitely going to be a Sunny Sunday!

I could see that there were lots more poppies than last Thursday, as you can see from my new header, with the bees making the most of them . What with these and the various grasses it was all looking rather good!

The Pretty Lady rose has flowered ,but it’s only a couple of inches off the ground facing down the plot!

I’ve just had sausages, mash and onions for lunch but unfortunately the strawberries weren’t quite ready to have for afters!

I’m glad that it’s such a nice afternoon as it’s RAF Northolt’s Charity Photocall. As it’s a ticket only event that was clearly going to be a sell-out I decided not to apply. I was happy enough to see most of the aircraft present arrive on Friday including this sixty year old Percival Proctor, one of Martin-Baker’s two ejector seat flying test bed Gloster Meteor T7 (Mod) and a French Securite Civile Canadair CL-415. The latter is, not surprisingly, a new type for here but may well have been seen by some of you in the Mediterranean as it’s used by France, Greece, Italy and Spain for fire fighting.

Thanks to Glo (Porcelain Rose) for this image.

I managed to get to the plot yesterday afternoon, and although I didn’t do very much whilst there it was worth going just to see these poppies!

and

Wild China 5/6. Land of the Panda is on Sunday BBC2 at 9.00pm. It’s about central China where charismatic animals such as giant pandas and golden takin are found. I had to do a search to find out what the later one is!

Springwatch carries on into its third, and last, week Monday through Thursday on BBC2 at 8.00pm except Wednesday when it’s on at 6.30pm. Followers of this popular programme will be pleased to learn that a series of themed Springwatch specials begins the following Monday.

Hunkydory Links is a bookmarked blog that I often refer to as it’s great for links to sites that are informative and interesting. Check out the long list of labels if you’re looking for a specific subject as it’s quite likely that you’ll find it there. Maureen, an American expat living near London, also has a more personal blog Brilliant Britain titled A View from England. Entries are often about her interests in birds, nature and the environment. She also lists lots of useful links about England and London.

Have a good weekend!

Show us your mugs said Daffy earlier today!

I often refer to a cup of tea in these entries but I must confess that I should really say a mug of tea! Like most people I have an assortment of mugs that I use. However when I’m drinking tea I nearly always use a plain white mug.

It’s the middle one of these three, and is a standard size one.

The one on the left is a proper builder’s mug which gets used occasionally when I’m really thirsty, and the dinky one on the right is a demitasse cup.

Now please excuse me, if you will, as I’m off to to make a mug of tea! I’ll have it with a couple of biscuits, of course, whilst reading the book that I’ll be mentioning in a week or so in response to Uphilldowndale’s recent tag.

I’ve not been to the hut for a few Sundays but I went this morning as I needed to buy peanuts and seeds for the birds. I had a mug of coffee, and a couple of dunking ginger nuts, whilst chatting to several folk mostly, and not surprisingly, about the weather.

From there I went to the plot where I weeded for a while then took some photos before calling it a day as it was starting to drizzle again.

There were several Californian poppies out which are surrounded by Love-in-a-Mist.

Bees were on the Cornflowers and the Comfrey

There are lots of poppies which will look wonderful in flower.

Here’s the well hidden pond , I’m still undecided what to have in the stone feature

and I can’t remember what I sowed in the trough

What is noticeable on the plot is the number of grasses, some of which are several feet tall, all with differing flower heads.

I really don’t have to say what the forecast is for the next couple days , but it does look better beyond that!